Red Nightmare (1962)

Jack Webb hosts this anti-Soviet, anti-communist movie about a man who finds himself living in a Communist America. Child stars Nancy Pelosi and Joe Biden turn their own dad in to the secret police. Barack Obama was one year old and already a Marxist.

Jack Webb was as cool as the come. In 1962 my baby crib was a primary hydrogen bomb target. You might be tempted to view this as a propaganda film, but nukes are still pointing at my house.

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7 thoughts on “Red Nightmare (1962)”

Reviewer: billbarstad – – January 23, 2011 Subject: Ah, The Red Scare As hugozoom pointed out, this was televised in 1962, the same year as the Cuban Missile Crisis . That was the only time I felt the fear of nuclear war around me. I never feared a communist takeover. There just wasn’t any of that in my neighborhood. There were no bomb shelters. The only designated shelters were downtown. Hardly noticed them. School was the place fear was pushed, and that was in the form of filmstrips and various civil defense drills. It didn’t take. Oh, it was in the paper and on TV, but no one I knew took it seriously. Maybe common sense reigned in the Pacific Northwest. Still seems to do so. Watching this, I was struck by how the portrayed communists are so much like the far right in this country. They both want to take away our liberties. They both hate our government. They both have repressive ideologies. They both see things that aren’t there. Try watching it and replace ‘communist’ with ‘lunatic fringe’, and see what you think. Watch for an early appearance by Robert Conrad. Aside from a trip down memory lane, this wasn’t an entertaining half-hour for me.

I can see how this could also be funny, and you probably already know if you agree. I myself didn’t find it funny, and I’m I big fan of MST3K. The humor is, quite honestly, minimal. The production values and competency of the filmmaking are fine, even expertly done at times. There aren’t factual inaccuracies or cultural misunderstandings of communism — most if not all of the charges leveled against communism as it was in Russia are accurate. You might get some amusement from the idea that voting, going to town council meetings, and attending church is in any way to fight the communist menace. But that’s about it. The appeal of this film is the unique atmosphere it creates, not the humor.